Why Should I Use Conversion Tracking in AdWords?

So an Internet user clicked your ad. While that’s definitely cause for a celebratory mini-dance party at your desk, you need deeper information than just knowing that someone clicked your ad to help you decipher why they clicked your ad- were they ready to purchase? Researching your product for the first time? Or did their cat unexpectedly jump on the keyboard and they accidentally clicked your ad as they grabbed their coffee cup to stop it from spilling on the keyboard? That’s where conversion tracking in AdWords comes in. Conversion tracking shows you what happens after a customer clicks your ads. “Conversion” in this sense means any type of customer activity that has value to your business, whether it’s a purchase, a phone call, an app download, or a newsletter signup. Here’s why you should take full advantage of conversion tracking in AdWords.

Gauge Your Effectiveness

Conversion tracking shows you how effective your ads are in terms of leading to customer activity and desired conversions. You can easily see how well your keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns are working for your business and what your ROI is. We’re also big fans of being specific with your digital marketing goals, and conversion tracking helps you connect your ads and keywords to your specific business goals. Do you want your current campaign to increase newsletter signups by 10%, or increase revenue by 2.5%? Conversion tracking helps with that.

See How Customers Interact With Your Ads Across Devices

It’s estimated that only 2% of shoppers convert on their first visit to an online store. Instead, they’re likely to visit your website and then exit, only to return later- sometimes using a different browser or, more likely, a different device entirely. However, it’s really tricky to track ad clicks that start on one device (or browser) and then end on another. With the Estimated Total Conversions column, you can gain more insight into how your conversions are completed after a customer uses more than one device or browser. NOTE: There are some caveats. From AdWords help:

Cross-device conversions, a part of estimated total conversions, are tracked only for AdWords ads traffic on google.com and the Google Display Network at this time. Also, cross-device estimates aren’t compatible with imported goals from Google Analytics or imported offline conversion tracking. Not every advertiser will have these estimated conversions because of limited data. For instance, we only show data when we are very confident that our cross-device estimates are highly accurate. In some cases, we’ll show a “–” when you might have cross-device conversions, but there isn’t enough data for us to confidently make an estimate.

So, bear that in mind. Cross-device tracking via estimated total conversions helps you to further narrow down your conversion attributions so that you know what campaign specifically led to a conversion, whether the conversion takes place on Safari on an iPad or over the phone.

Boost Your ROI

We touched on this already, but it’s worth diving into further. If you can accurately identify which keywords bring you the most conversions and which ones don’t, you’ll be able to invest more in those keywords while saving money by not spending on the less valuable keyword.

It’s Free

Enough said.

In Conclusion

Conversion tracking gives you more information, arming you with the data to make better decisions and ultimately earn more money.